Reliability and Factor Structure of the Short Problem Behaviors Assessment for Huntington’s Disease (PBA-s) in the TRACK-HD and REGISTRY studies

• Published in: The journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences Vol. 27; no. 1; pp. 59 - 64
• Main Authors: Callaghan, Jenny, Stopford, Cheryl, Arran, Natalie, Boisse, Marie-Francoise, Coleman, Allison, Santos, Rachelle Dar, Dumas, Eve M, Hart, Ellen P, Justo, Damian, Owen, Gail, Read, Joy, Say, Miranda J, Durr, Alexandra, Leavitt, Blair R, Roos, Raymund A. C, Tabrizi, Sarah J, Bachoud-Levi, Anne-Catherine, Bourdet, Catherine, van Duijn, Erik, Craufurd, David
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Psychiatric Association 2015
• Subjects: Europe; Female; Humans; Huntington Disease - complications; International Cooperation; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Mental Disorders - diagnosis; Mental Disorders - etiology; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Registries; Reproducibility of Results; Severity of Illness Index; Statistics, Nonparametric; Europe
• ISSN: 0895-0172; 1545-7222
• DOI: 10.1176/appi.neuropsych.13070169

The authors report the inter-rater reliability and factor structure of the Short Problem Behaviors Assessment (PBA-s), a semistructured interview to measure severity and frequency of behavioral problems in Huntington’s disease. Video recordings of 410 PBA-s interviews were rescored by an independent rater, and Cohen’s kappa calculated to assess inter-rater reliability. The mean kappa was 0.74 for severity and 0.76 for frequency scores, whereas weighted kappa (allowing scores to differ by 1 point) was 0.94 for severity and 0.92 for frequency scores. The results of factor analysis were consistent with previous studies using other measures. The authors conclude that the PBA-s is a reliable measure.